Maryland man gets life sentence for killing teen’s father in mistaken belief she was abused

Md. man gets life for murder of friend’s father

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A western Maryland man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for fatally stabbing the father of a teenage girl who had misled him into thinking her dad had physically abused her.

Alec S. Eger, 20, apologized repeatedly to Billy Lee Black’s sobbing widow before officers escorted him from Washington County Circuit Court.

“Taking your loved one causes me so much shame,” said Eger, a baby-faced, 6-foot-4 defendant who was convicted of first-degree murder in a January plea bargain. “This is never who I was or who I wanted to be.”

Eger’s public defenders had sought a 25-year prison term, portraying the defendant as a troubled but kindhearted dupe who got tangled up in Danielle Black’s scheme to get rid of her strict father when she was 15.

“He was a sap,” Assistant Public Defender Jerome Joyce told Judge Daniel P. Dwyer.

Dwyer likened Eger to a bomb packed with emotion from his own abusive childhood.

“Danielle Black lit the fuse,” the judge said.

Prosecutors said Eger had repeatedly stabbed Black in an alley behind the family’s Hagerstown home as Black was leaving for his tree-trimming job early on Halloween morning in 2008.

Eger told police he stabbed Black during a fight after confronting him about the supposed abuse.

Assistant State’s Attorney Gina Cirincion told the court it was an ambush.

“The whole point of this episode was to kill Billy Black,” she said.

Danielle, now 16, is serving a 10-year-sentence for soliciting her father’s murder.

Danielle told many friends her father had beaten her, according witnesses at her July trial. She recanted the abuse allegations after police said they found no supporting evidence.

Danielle’s stepmother, Andrea Black, has said Black was a loving father who had become increasingly strict because his daughter was skipping school and stealing items from home.

The teen’s journal entries and photographs collected by investigators indicate that the one-time honor student had become involved with alcohol, drugs and sex.